Motion of censure against Mayors

1. Mayors may be deposed by means of a censure motion, which shall be tabled, discussed and voted upon according to the following rules:

a) Such motion shall be tabled by at least the absolute majority of the council’s members and must name an alternative candidate to the office of Mayor, who can be one of the councilors¹¹. The motion shall in any case contain a statement of explicit acceptance by the candidate so proposed.

b) The motion shall contain the firms of its proponents, duly authenticated by a public notary or by the Secretary-General of the council and must be tabled before him by any of its signatories. The Secretary-General must check that the motion satisfies the conditions laid down in this present Section and shall thereupon issue the appropriate certificate.

c) On the tabling of the motion so certified with the Council’s General Register by one of the signatories, a full meeting of the Council is thereby automatically convened to be held at noon on the tenth day after the date of entry in the Register. The Secretary of the Council shall forward a certification thereof to all councillors within one day at the latest from the lodging of the motion, with an indication of the day and the time of the sitting, so that members of the council may duly attend.

d) The plenary meeting shall be chaired by a provisional Bureau consisting of the oldest and the youngest councillors, excluding the mayor and the alternative candidate, with the Council’s Secretary acting as Clerk, on accreditation of his official position.

e) The Chair shall confine itself to reading out the censure motion and checking, as a condition for the proceedings to continue, that the requirements under the three subparagraphs of paragraph a) are still satisfied. It shall then briefly give the floor, if they are attending to the alternative candidate, to the Mayor and to the spokesmen of the council’s political groups, and finally put the motion to the vote.

2. No councillor may sign during his mandate more than one censure motion. Provided that motions not proceeded with for failure to satisfy the requirements set out in paragraph b) of subsection of this present section shall not be taken into account.

3. The Mayor’s resignation after the tabling of the censure motion shall not suspend the proceedings and the vote upon said motion.

4. In communities governed by the open council (concejo abierto) system, censure motions shall be transacted under the provisions of the foregoing subsections, with the following special rules: 

a) References to councillors for the purpose of signature, presentation and vote of the motion, as well as the constitution of the provisional Bureau, shall be construed to be references to electors entered in the local electoral register, as in force on the day of tabling of the motion;

b) Any elector legally eligible and residing in the municipality may be a candidate;

c) References to the full meeting shall be construed as referring to the general residents’ meeting (Asamblea vecinal);

d) Notification by the Secretary to councillors of the day and time of full meeting shall be replaced by an announcement of the open general meeting to local residents, such announcement being made in the same manner as normally used for convening said general meetings and

e) The provisional Bureau shall give the floor only to the alternative candidate and to the Mayor.

5. The Mayor, in the discharge of his functions, must prevent any act disturbing, hindering or impeding councillors’ right to attend the plenary sitting for the vote on the censure motion and to vote at such meeting. Causes for abstention from being a candidate and rejection of candidates contemplated in the administrative procedure legislation shall in particular not apply to the censure motion.

6. Changes in the office of Mayor resulting from a censure motion in municipalities ruled by open council system, shall not entail any change in membership of the Provincial Deputation.

 SECT. 197 AS AMENDED BY SECT. 1 OF INSTITUTIONAL ACT 8/1999, OF APRIL 21

 1. A) AND 1. E) AS AMENDED BY SECT. 57 OF INSTITUTIONAL ACT 2/2011, OF JANUARY 28

 1. F) DELETED BY SECT. 57 OF INSTITUTIONAL ACT 2/2011, OF JANUARY 28

¹¹ A provision clearly inspired by Section 13 of the Constitution, according to which the Congress of Deputies may challenge Government policy by a motion of censure tabled by the majority of its members, provided (subs. 23) such motion includes a candidate to the office of Prime Minister. This provision is in turn an imitation of the Federal German Republic’s Fundamental Act (Grundgesetz) of 1949  which has laid down this requirement of an alternative candidate for a motion of censure to be tabled and discussed ( Germann legal language konstruktives Misstrauensvotum. i.e. “constructive nonconfidence
vote”).